A Life Fulfilled
by Miss Higher Power
Summary: Danny and Lindsay prepare to close a chapter of their life. Sequel, of sorts, to Unexpected. Oneshot.


He's packing up his office today. After 35 years of service, he will retire tomorrow. He and his wife came into the lab this morning, armed with boxes. She will clear out her office and he will clear out his. Tomorrow, the boxes will be packed into the car and, after the official party; they will leave hand in hand, ready for new adventures. And they plan on having adventures. They may be 60, but they're not going to let that stop them.

Lindsay has the next ten weeks of their life planned, and has ideas for after that. Their daughter is coming to visit for four weeks. They're going on a Caribbean cruise for three weeks, then they're heading to Montana for two weeks. After that, they'll head out to the lake house they bought, where she plans to put him to work. The whole place needs to be renovated, but that's why they got it for so little.

"Hey, Danny, do you want to pack pictures in the same box." Her head has popped around the corner of his office, and he can't help but smile. He's worked here for 35 years and he's known her for 30, but somehow he doesn't think his life started until he met her.

"Sure. I think we're gonna need more than a box though." He tells her as he looks around his office. His office is covered in pictures, and so is hers. Pictures of people that they've known over the years, pictures of them, and pictures of their kids.

"I know. When did we have time to take all these pictures?" He wraps his arms around her as she comes further into his office.

"To be fair, Flack's a little camera happy, so we probably only took half of these." He smirks down at her as he says this.

"Alright, enough reminiscing. We've got to finish packing up, and then we've got to go back to house and get ready to go over to Don and Eve's." She says as she makes her way to the door.

"Who's picking Aiden up from the airport?" Danny asks before she leaves.

"Lily and Aaron are going to pick up Aiden. Hannah's going to pick up Stella and take her to Don's."

"What's Will gonna be doing while the girls are busy?"

"He's on rugrat duty. At our place." And with that she's disappeared down the hallway.

As he starts packing up the pictures, he takes a moment to reflect on each of the photos that he places in the box.

The first one he picks up is one of the team. He doesn't even remember when it was taken, but it was before he met Lindsay. Aiden is in the picture, squeezed between Flack and Stella.

The next picture is a candid one. It was taken the night of the NYPD Christmas party, the night that would change his life. He and Lindsay are sitting at a table, laughing about something. He couldn't see it then, but he can see it plain as day now. They were completely in love.

After that is another candid shot, taken the day that they staged a huge fight, all with the intention of shocking Flack with the announcement that they were having a baby.

There are other photos. One of the day he married Lindsay. There are photos of each of his daughters and his son: Hannah, Aiden, Lily, and Will. There are photos of Mac and Stella, of Flack and his wife, Eve, and Hawkes and his wife, Laurel. There are several newer photos. Hannah on the day she married Steve. Aiden, on the day that she was offered the job in Europe. Lily, on the day that she and Aaron Flack announced their engagement, and another one from the day they married. There's a picture of Will on the day he graduated from high school. And there are several pictures of his four grandchildren.

But the picture that fills him with the most joy is the one of his "family." Not just his biological family, but the family that he and Lindsay have chosen. People are crammed into the picture, all trying to fit. When he looks at this photo, he feels like he's actually accomplished something. Like he's not just a cop. In this picture, he's a friend, a father, a husband, and a grandfather.

He seals the first box of photos, which happens to be his last box. He then picks up the second box of photos and makes his way to Lindsay's office.

"Well, Mrs. Messer. I'm all packed up. You almost ready?" Danny asks her.

"I just have to pack up the last of these pictures and then I'm good to go." She tells him as she gathers up the last of her photos.

"You remember the day this was taken?" He asks her as she places the pile of frames in the box. He takes the top one from the pile. It's one of Aiden the first time they brought her to the lab. Her brown pigtails are hanging in her face as she leans over the tray looking at something.

"Yeah. She was so excited to come to the lab and see what Daddy did every day. She always was Daddy's little girl. Speaking of which, her plane should be landing right about now. I want to go home and change out of these before she gets home." Lindsay tells him as she places the picture back in the box and seals it.

* * *

When they arrive at the Flack's that evening, the party is already in full swing.

"Gumpa!" A little voice shouts. A second later he has a mass of dark haired, little girl attached to his leg. He reaches down and picks up the little girl.

"Hey, gorgeous! What's shakin'?" He always says this to her, which makes her giggle like crazy.

"Gumpa, you silly." She tells him as he makes his way across the room.

"Lily, your daughter thinks I'm silly." He gives his daughter a kiss on the forehead.

"Hi, Dad. Do you want me to take her? You can go and make with the grown-up talk." She holds her arms out to take the little girl, but the girl just clings tighter to Danny.

"Nah, this is the way I wanna spend my evening…with my family. Isn't that right, Ava?" He asks his granddaughter.

"Yup! Juice?" The little girl asks hopefully.

"Sure." He heads off to the kitchen to find his granddaughter some juice.

Once inside the kitchen, he finds Ava a juice box and grabs himself a beer. As he wanders back out into the hall, a whirlwind passes by him.

"Hey, hey. Slow down! Where's the fire?" He asks his grandsons.

"Hi, Gramps." The three boys say in unison. They have that look on their face, the one where they're about to do something that they shouldn't.

"What're you three up to?" He asks.

"We're just…playing." Responds seven-year-old Nathan, while five-year-old Adam and four-year-old James nod their heads in confirmation.

"Alright. Just remember, if something happens later, I'll remember that you looked like you to were up to no good." The three boys look a little disappointed, but like all little boys quickly think of something else to do and race down the hall towards the back door.

"Bye, Gramps!" They shout as they run out.

"Gumpa?" Ava asks from his hip. "Why come we having a party?"

"Because Grandma and Grandpa are retiring." This seems to satisfy the little girl for the time being.

Danny steps back into the party in time to see Hannah, Steve, and Aiden arrive. He and his wife swoop in on the group in seconds.

"Aiden." His wife cries as she envelopes her second daughter into a giant hug.

"Hi, Mom. Dad." Aiden replies as she hugs her dad.

"How's life in The Netherlands treating you?"

"It's awesome. I can't believe I'm actually doing this." She tells them. She looks over at her dad and the suddenly shy little girl he's holding. "And this must be my newest niece." Lindsay quickly does introductions.

"Ava, this is your Aunt Aiden. She's your mommy's sister."

"Hi, Ava. I have a present for you." She reaches into her bag and pulls out a cone shaped bag that has been filled with candy. "You tell me which ones you like and I'll make sure to send you some when I get home." Ava's shyness has suddenly disappeared and she turns to her grandpa.

"Gumpa? Auntie Aiden?" She asks. He knows what she wants.

"Bribing with candy. Aiden, I would have expected better from you." He chuckles as he passes Ava over.

"Uncle Flack taught me. Why do you think we were always good when he babysat us?" She laughs.

"Fack? My oder Gumpa is Gumpa Fack." The little girl looks up from her candy.

"I know sweetie. He used to babysit Aunt Hannah and me." She tells her niece.

"Speaking of being good, Hannah, I ran into the boys in the hallway. They looked like they were up to trouble." Danny said to his oldest daughter.

"Thanks, Dad. Steve, can you go make sure your sons are behaving themselves?" Hannah asks her husband.

"So when they're bad, they're my kids?" Steve teases.

"Didn't you know that? When Will and the girls misbehaved, they were Danny's. When they did something good, they were mine. That's the key to successful child-rearing." Lindsay informed her son-in-law.

"Well, that explains why Hannah's so weird." He said as he narrowly avoided his mother-in-law's smack.

* * *

"Alright. Can I get everyone's attention please?" The crowd that filled the Flack's living room slowly quieted down at Will's announcement. "Okay. So tonight we're here to say farewell to my parent's working days and I've been asked to say a few words. So, I've known my parents for, well, my whole life and that's only a little longer than I've known the lab and everyone in it. My parents are completely dedicated to everything that they do. They're dedicated parents and grandparents and dedicated detectives and CSIs. And I know that for them, tomorrow is going to be one of the toughest days of their life together. Dad likes to tell us that he started working at the lab when he was 25 and he met Mom when he was 30, but that he doesn't think that his life really started until he met her. So for my dad, his life began in that lab, or at a tiger enclosure at the zoo, I'm not really sure. But I do know that everyday for 30 years my parents have gone into that lab together, and I know that tomorrow, they will walk out, maybe for the last time, together. And so I would like to propose a toast. To working hard and making an office romance look easy."

After everyone had toasted and taken a sip of their drinks, Lindsay got up to say a few words.

"I'm going to try to keep this short. Danny and I really want to thank you all for coming out tonight. We would never have made it this long without you. So to all the people that babysat our rugrats when we got called out to a scene, and to all the people who helped us out over the years, thank you.

That night, after they had gone home and gotten Aiden settled into her old bedroom, they lay in bed thinking about the next day.

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

"How do you feel about it?" Danny asked her.

"I don't know. A little bit of everything. Sad, happy, scared." At that, he shifted slightly to get a better look at her.

"Scared?" He asked.

"This huge part of my life is going to be over. Everything that I have, I have because I worked at that lab and I'm afraid of what's going to happen now that I'm not going to be going there every day."

"What's gonna happen is that we're gonna live happily ever after. Just like in those stories we read the girls." He kissed her and pulled her close to him.

"How do you do that?" Lindsay asked.

"Years of practice."


End file.
